Beer news in nyc

From February, 2012

This weekend the Get Real NY team held its latest festival, aPORKalypse Now. Ten chefs prepared 10 locally-sourced pigs to pair with plenty of excellent beer from local breweries. We tasted a lot of beer but of course there were a few standouts for us. Some local breweries really stepped up for this event with standout beers to complement the local pork. Chris and Damian from the Bronx Brewery brought a version of their pale ale that had been barrel aged. This might have been our favorite beer of the night. The pale ale brought its normal biscuity character with…

As we’ve previously reported, this Saturday’s NYC American Craft Beer Festival has three levels of tickets, general admission, VIP and Connoisseur. The Connoisseurs will have an extra hour of tastings – as do VIPs – but will also have access to the lounge with food and rare beers. The list of beers for the Connoisseur’s Lounge was released recently. Several jump out at us: 2004 Monster Ale – Brooklyn Brewery 2010 Black Ops – Brooklyn Brewery Noble Rot – Dogfish Head Old Curmudgeon’s Better Half – Founders Brewing Monk’s Mistress – Midnight Sun Brewing The ticket does come with a hefty…

Excuse me for a minute while I slip into first person singular, because this event is important to me. Since Giancarlo and I started this website we have been totally welcomed into the beer world. It’s a friendly place. But it’s largely male-dominated (not a bad thing). But when Emily Garland (Founder and CEO of Tapped Craft Beer Events) told me she was starting a women in beer networking event with Sonya Giacobbe (co-owner of Kelso of Brooklyn) and asked would I be interested? A resounding YES. Feb 27 the event, “New York City Women in Beer,” will take place…

Which pairs better with food, wine or beer? Some say one, some say the other. Obviously, you know where we stand. A couple of weeks ago the Tour de France restaurant group held a Stinky Cheese Festival, during which beer sommelier Gianni Cavicchi (below right) competed against wine sommelier Aviram Turgeman (below left) for the best pairings. Food and drink stations were set up throughout 404 in Manhattan for guests to taste dishes from each of the restaurants alongside the beer and wine. We were impressed with many of the pairings, especially a few of the beer pairings. In order…

This Saturday February 25, the Get Real NY team is putting together one of their most ambitious festivals yet – aPORKalypse Now. The event will feature ten New York chefs cooking ten locally-sourced pigs for attendees to pair with an impressive beer list. Phillipe Roussel of Cafe D’Alsace, Christopher Parks of The Guilty Goose and Gabe Thompson of L’Artusi are among the chefs who will be cooking up the hogs. For anyone who hasn’t attended a pig roast where you can get all different cuts of the pig this will be quite the introduction (people who have been to one…

Over the past week there has been a lot of attention surrounding Founders Brewing’s new Backstage Series release, Old Curmudgeon’s Better Half, and how it functions as a follow up to the craze-inducing release of the Canadian Breakfast Stout. While there’s so much buzz around Founders’ special releases, they still have some awesome brews in their regular line up. This Saturday at GRAB Foods on 7th Ave. in Park Slope you will have the opportunity to taste their Centennial IPA, Red’s Rye Pale Ale, and the Porter (one of our favorites). Bring your growler — growler fills will be discounted 10%.

On Saturday, March 3, the Hand Crafted Tasting Company will hold its inaugural NYC American Craft Beer Festival at the Lexington Avenue Armory. “This festival is a great addition to New York’s maturing, evolving craft beer scene,” said Joshua Bernstein in a press release. Bernstein will be leading one of four seminars at the event, titled “The Future of Craft Beer 2012.” Other seminars will be led by Hayley Jensen, beer sommelier at Taproom 307, Sam Merritt, the first Certified Cicerone Beer Sommelier in NYC, and Clay Gordon, author of Discover Chocolate. The festival will be split into two sessions,…

This Saturday February 11 our local brew shop, Bitter and Esters, on Washington Ave in Prospect Heights will host their fourth Brew Like a Pro event. This week’s beer is the beloved (by us anyway) Dale’s Pale Ale from Oskar Blues Brewery. We had the opportunity to observe the first batch, Victory Prima Pils, and can vouch for this as a great way to learn more about brewing, hone your skills, and relax with some great beer people. There are two four and a half hour brew sessions starting at 10am and 3:30pm. Tickets are $65.

With their venture 508 Gastrobrewery, Anderson Sant’anna De Lima and Jennifer Sant’anna Hill are passionately exploring the world of brewing and food. Their restaurant has a small batch brewing operation in the basement, where Andersen is always brewing and experimenting with new beers, which they serve upstairs. Anderson has been interested in brewing since his time at school in Brazil where he studied architecture. At at time the brewing program required an engineering degree and put students into a program with Anheuser-Busch. Anderson tabled his interest for a time and eventually became an owner and chef at 508 restaurant in…

This evening I opened our mailbox to find a (handmade?) Valentine’s card with a beer journal tucked inside from my dear friend Hanna. As she notes, this combines two of my great loves: beer and adorable little notebooks. She knows me well. What she doesn’t know, however, is that I have a difficult time remembering the beers I drink. Giancarlo, on the other hand, has an unfailing memory, and oftentimes when people will ask me if I’ve had a certain beer, I’ll say no, only to have him tell them I actually have. So this beer notebook – 33 Bottles of…